10 on Tuesday: 10 Things You Love About Your Family
Ah, family. What a complex topic. Fortunately, I’ve been blessed with a wonderful nuclear family, and the extended family is much closer than most too. Unfortunately, my blood relatives are for the most part back in Minnesota. Those who are not, are not in Colorado so I do not get to spend time with them near as often as I would like.
There is also of course the family you make, through marriage and through close friendships. I’m a bit guarded for whatever reason (I could make some educated guesses, but this isn’t a therapy post), so my chosen family tends to be a very small group of people. But, those people I trust with my life as I do my blood family.
1. Shared history is one of my favorite parts of family. There is nothing more enjoyable than retelling the same stories over and over and laughing about their absurdity. Of course the longer you’ve known the family member, the better the stories. Although a few of my chose family as just so good at humorous storytelling you can’t help but to pee a little when they tell a story, regardless of how recently it happened, LOL!
2. I guess that one automatically brings one to laughter. I never laugh as much as when I’m with family. When I go back to MN for two weeks, I always come back having lost weight, no matter how many steaks and burgers and meat in general I’ve consumed. While some I’m sure is due to the reduction in carb consumption, I have to suspect some is due to the massive amounts of deep down, belly laughing that happens. Frequently my sister and I fall into peels of laughter where we swear we are turning into our grandma Bakke because we can not finish getting the story out. Instead we have tears in our eyes and are practically wheezing. And the dogs - they never fail to get at least one laugh out of me each day. Especially since we added Brandon to the family. He is a hoot and a half!
3. Shared interests, be they photography (with my sister), knitting (my chosen family), gardening (my dad) or fine cooking (husband, SIL1 and others) always provide plenty of conversation fodder and even activities to enjoy together. Togetherness is definitely part of equation for family ties.
4. No judging! I know not everyone is lucky enough to have a family that doesn’t judge, or at least doesn’t let you know they judge. But other than my grandfather who is getting bad about it in his old age, my family doesn’t really judge. Since that is kind of a rare trait I’m all the more thankful for it!
5. They know how to celebrate & have a good time! My family really knows how to celebrate things of all types. Mom is the queen of birthday celebrations, from going to the Ice Capades and an epic scavenger hunt to just obnoxious tween sleep overs, she knows how to make birthdays special. And even from a distance they go out of their way to call and post all over (Facebook, Lose-it, etc.) to send good wishes. Some of the local family even brings fantastic yogurt and granola to SnB as “birthday cake” that I can eat :-) My chosen family here in Colorado is also fantastic about throwing celebrations for holidays, even obscure ones like Talk Like a Pirate Day or Mad Hatter Un-Birthday parties.
6. Games! One of our favorite things to do when we get together is play games - board games, card games, travel games, you name it, we enjoy it! I have memories going way back to playing games with friends and family on all sides. Many years ago we used to have weekly game nights with some of the local friends. I miss that, but we are not in the position to do so weekly right now, nor to host. But perhaps in a few years it will get resurrected.
7. They enjoy good food! Many are great cooks - DH, SIL1, mom, grandma, grandpa, Ashley (no longer CO family *pout*), Gene et al. All have at least a dish or three that they are especially good at. And they of course enjoy the food I make. They even will eat the failures, LOL!
8. Hugs! My family is a family of huggers. For whatever reason I don’t hug much here in Colorado. But boy do my arms get a workout when I’m back in MN and visiting grandparents and aunts and uncles. We’re good huggers from all that practice too. I still remember a tiny, curly read headed little girl giving out her special “squeezy hugs.” There we are, back at shared history, aren’t we?
Photo by my sister of AMS Photography, post-processed by me
9. They know how to lighten the mood! I’m prone to darkness and my family can lighten my mood faster than anything. I don’t know how they do it, but I sure appreciate it!
10. Support! There is nothing like knowing someone has your back. When pain levels are high I know I have DH and a few local friends who will pitch in and help out. And putting together Nourishing Knits has really driven home this point as well - I’ve listed many of the people who have helped me in various ways with the book’s acknowledgements section, but I could never list it all. Perhaps one of the most valuable things about putting together this book is the realization of how much support and encouragement I have from a much wider pool of people that I expected when I first set out on the journey.
How about you? What do you most love about your family?
